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Last week I was absent for very exciting reasons. First, my mom came out to visit and then my partner and I headed over to Lyons, Colorado for Planet Bluegrass’s 20th Folks Festival. And it folked my socks off. Old favorites were there, like Ani DiFranco and Jenny Lewis, and I found some new favorites, too, such as Girlyman and Dala. Consider the following to be souvenirs I brought back for you!

Ani DiFranco – Her new stuff keeps getting better. Which is astonishing. Check out this sweet folk ditty (sorry about the poor visuals, but the sound is great and this vid is from the festival!):

Jenny Lewis – Jenny had me at Rilo Kiley, and her solo stuff continues to win me over. She played Silver Lining at the Folks Festival, but this clip is from a different performance:

Girlyman – Girlyman is my new favorite band. They were fantastic free-stylin’ banterers. If you ever, ever, hear about them coming near your town, go see them. This is their official vid (made with the help of comedian Margaret Cho):

Dala – Dala is a Canadian duo made up of Amanda and Sheila who are great musicians, and fellow Beatles lovers.

Liz Longley – Liz Longley also blew me away, especially with her intense song The Gun and The Gold. Liz was the winner of last year’s songwriter showcase, earning her a full set this year:

Alas, after two days of full sun my northern heritage was showing. And by that I mean I had a nice little sunburn going, plus some general exhaustion from hot days, cold nights, and fanatical festivarians. So we headed home on day three, missing a couple of pretty cool acts:

The Waifs – From Australia.

Joy Kills Sorrow – I was excited that this band had a guitar, bass, banjo and mandolin. The more strings the better, right? And voices to match.

It was an all around great festival, and I wish that we would have had the energy to stay longer. Next time we’ll need to get a whole crew together – the campsite next to ours was having a great time… Any recommendations?